Shane Ross (Independent)

I am quite disingenuous as well. However, I have consistently examined this simplistic argument between Boston and Berlin. The reason people do not like coming down on one side or the other is that we are unapologetically in the Boston camp. We are not good Europeans in the sense that we kowtow to European diktats, as we did previously. In fact, ours is an American led economy within the European Union. That is why we are so prosperous.

That is not an easy thing for an Irish Government to accept or trumpet; it prefers to claim all the credit for the wonderful boom and the presence of the multinationals. It is partly due to the Government but it is also a recognition of a hugely changing trend in the Irish economy. There is full employment but that is due to the fact that there are foreign multinationals here. Thank God for that. The prosperity is due to that and it is continuing daily. While one receives press releases each day from any Department that is vaguely associated with the creation of jobs and from any Deputy associated with the area, the big picture, which is that we are part of the global economy and not a little island economy any more, is something we are reluctant to recognise.

That is why, to some extent, we make such an awful fuss about the partnership talks. This gives us the image of the Government negotiating with its own vested interests, agreeing a pay deal and claiming it as the reason for the Celtic tiger. We hear everywhere and from all sides of this House, day after day, that what underpins the economic boom are the talks and the pay deal. It is nonsense because it is not provable. However, it is easy to say, even though there is little evidence for it. It should be acknowledged that the agreements have brought about a certain amount of industrial peace. There is no total peace because people regularly breach the agreement.

As I said on the Order of Business yesterday, the pay deal is rapidly becoming irrelevant. We will have the great pageant in Dublin Castle in a few weeks and witness the midnight, cliffhanger negotiations, with the Taoiseach arriving to sort out this or that problem, probably at 1 a.m. Perhaps the Minister for Finance, Deputy Cowen, or the Minister of State, Deputy Parlon, will be there too. They will knock a few heads together and, abracadabra, there will be a pay deal and much more besides. Wait and see. The important thing will be, regardless of what happens in Dublin Castle afterwards, to say, "Look, the economy is booming; the trade unions, the employers and ourselves have once again agreed how it should be run. We have done it really well for the past ten years between the three of us and we will do it again".